YOKOSUKA, Japan Nissan Motor Co. is testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan that can tow vehicles on a trailer to the wharf for loading on transport ships....During a demonstration Monday, a Leaf car with no one inside scooted along the road, pulling a trailer with three other Leafs on it, stopped properly for other vehicles, and then veered into a parking lot.

Yes, the semi-autonomous vehicle era which is now beginning is "going to be a mess", and it probably won't last very long, either, IMO.

Autonomous features ripe for misunderstandingSafety issues arise for buyers, sellers

As Donna Lee approached the intersection of Roberts Drive and Spalding Drive in Sandy Springs, Ga., the salesman in the passenger seat told her not to hit the brakes, even though two cars were stopped and waiting at the red light ahead.

According to court documents, Lee and Mercedes salesman Desmond Domingo have similar accounts of what happened next on the evening of May 10, 2014. The Distronic semiautonomous system in the Mercedes-Benz GL450, which Domingo believed would bring the car to a full stop, did not kick in as he expected. The Mercedes slammed into the car in front of it at around 40 mph, causing a chain reaction of crashes that left a 16-year-old driver with a concussion and significant damage to the cars involved.

Situations such as that -- when car salespeople are trying to demonstrate semiautonomous technology to customers who've never experienced it -- are emerging as a concern for industry watchers who fear salespeople will oversell or misrepresent technology, leading to accidents...

Semiautonomous technology is rolling out piecemeal, and each automaker has a system that does something different. Some bring a vehicle to a full stop. Some slow the vehicle to about 5 mph. Some can keep the vehicle in the lane, with little input from the driver. Others issue warnings when the vehicle is about to leave the lane but leave the driver in control.

The wide variety of options makes it hard to keep track of what each vehicle does. Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, said this is a problem that likely won't be solved until fully autonomous vehicles -- ones that drive themselves without input from the driver -- are available.

YOKOSUKA, Japan Nissan Motor Co. is testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan that can tow vehicles on a trailer to the wharf for loading on transport ships....During a demonstration Monday, a Leaf car with no one inside scooted along the road, pulling a trailer with three other Leafs on it, stopped properly for other vehicles, and then veered into a parking lot.

YOKOSUKA, Japan Nissan Motor Co. is testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan that can tow vehicles on a trailer to the wharf for loading on transport ships....During a demonstration Monday, a Leaf car with no one inside scooted along the road, pulling a trailer with three other Leafs on it, stopped properly for other vehicles, and then veered into a parking lot.

It seems that once the vehicles themselves have self-driving capabilities that they could contain special pre-sale software that would allow them to perform the task of loading and unloading themselves from the transport ship.

RegGuheert wrote:It seems that once the vehicles themselves have self-driving capabilities that they could contain special pre-sale software that would allow them to perform the task of loading and unloading themselves from the transport ship.

Perhaps they could even sell themselves, cutting out the middleman (dealer). Wouldn't that be sweet!

RegGuheert wrote:It seems that once the vehicles themselves have self-driving capabilities that they could contain special pre-sale software that would allow them to perform the task of loading and unloading themselves from the transport ship.

Perhaps they could even sell themselves, cutting out the middleman (dealer). Wouldn't that be sweet!

The latest cars to be used in San Francisco have been built by Volvo and sold to Uber, after which Uber’s own self-driving hardware and software package has been added, most visibly in the roof-mounted control apparatus. Volvo Cars and Uber are contributing a combined US$300 million to the project. Both Uber and Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of their own autonomous car strategies.

These cars will drive around the streets of San Francisco autonomously, but as part of the pilot program they will at all times have an Uber technician on board to supervise the car’s operation.

Starting today, riders who request an uberX in San Francisco will be matched with a Self-Driving Uber if one is available. Expanding our self-driving pilot allows us to continue to improve our technology through real-world operations. With its challenging roads and often varied weather, Pittsburgh provided a wide array of experiences. San Francisco comes with its own nuances including more bikes on the road, high traffic density and narrow lanes.

. . . In California, the cars function much as they do in Pennsylvania. They have two engineers onboard--one in the driver's seat, one in the passenger's--taking notes and generally being available should anything go wrong. . . .

All of which sounds great and reasonable, except for one small problem: the California DMV says that Uber doesn't have a permit to operate self-driving vehicles on the state's public roads. Twenty companies have applied for and receive such permits, but Uber isn't among them. In response, Uber says that its cars aren't self-driving, and that's why there are humans onboard. According to Uber, those humans can and frequently do take over control of vehicles in driving situations.

The DMV says that whether or not there are humans onboard is irrelevant: Uber's vehicles are capable of driving autonomously, and that fact alone means that Uber has to apply for the proper permit. . . .

Guy [I have lots of experience designing/selling off-grid AE systems, some using EVs but don't own one. Local trips are by foot, bike and/or rapid transit].

The 'best' is the enemy of 'good enough'.Copper shot, not Silver bullets.